The Angry Fisherman, The Pizza Box, And The Missing Shoe
by lillykleaf
Summary: One-Shot from my AU Miraculous Date where I finally answer the question of how Adrien and Marinette got off the boat.


**I finally did it! I wrote what happens between Chapters 3 and 4 of Miraculous Date. I wanted to thank everyone that encouraged me to do this and a personal thank you to lareepgg for the suggestion to also add the swan, ukulele, and bolt cutters. Hope you all enjoy it!**

 **I own nothing Miraculous Ladybug.**

 **The song is Mario Cart Love Song by Sam Hart.**

* * *

Pizza box, angry fisherman, missing shoe, swan, bolt cutters, ukulele

Marinette was completely content to stay in this boat for the rest of her life, so long as Adrien's lips stayed on hers. Their bodies entwined, and as the boat rocked Marinette had a vague worry about off of their weight being shifted to Adrien's side of the boat. It was brief though, as she was unwilling to separate herself from him. What did catch her attention was the loud swearing.

They separated long enough for her to look up and see the approaching boat, but not soon enough to do anything about it but scream. Then it hit, and the boat tipped over. Marinette floundered in the water before coming up for air, coughing and spluttering. Adrien appeared beside her a moment later, also spitting out the river that had attempted to invade his lungs.

Above them, a loud, gruff voice cursed was cussing up a storm. "You made me drop my pizza!"

"Any idiots alive down there?" a second voice called.

"Two!" Adrien called up.

A search light flipped on and swept across the water until it rested on them. Marinette tried to raise her hand to cover her eyes, but couldn't paddle to keep her head above water one-handed and ended up just squinting to try and keep the light out of her eyes.

"What were you doing without your lights on after sundown?" It was the second voice again, though neither could see who was above them past the glaring light.

"Our boat broke. We didn't mean to be out this late. In fact, if you could tow us back to the rental company we borrowed this from, that would be awesome," Adrien said.

"Let's get you out first, then we'll see if we can do anything for your boat," the voice said again.

"Or you could let the idiots swim to shore.," The first voice that had cussed them out spoke up again.

Marinette decided that she didn't like them very much. Something splashed beside her, and it took her a second to realize that it was a rope. Both grabbed hold and used it to haul themselves over and up to the deck of the boat where Marinette finally got a good look at her rescuers.

Both were tall and dark- skinned. Their features were similar to each other's, but one looked like he'd been stretched sideways a bit and bulked out. He scowled at them as he held on to the other end of the rope they'd just used to climb up.

"I'm Chad, and this is Derek," the slender one said.. "Let's go downstairs where you'll be out of the wind."

Marinette turned to the slender of the two who was talking. Through his voice, Marinetteshe identified him as the second voice that had asked if they were alright. Which meant that Mr. Grumpy-Fface with the rope, aka Derek, was the one who'd first shouted profanities. She mumbled her thanks and sidled up to Adrien, now nervous and a little chilled now that she was out of the water, and they both shuffled after Chad, dripping river water as they went.

"Oh no, what happened to your shoe?" Chad asked.

Marinette looked down and saw that one of her feet was bare against the deck. "It m-must have fallen off when we fell in."

"What were you doing out so late anyway?" Derek asked. "I thought the boat tour companies didn't allow you to stay out after sundown."

Adrien winced a little. "They don't, but- uh- the pedals broke so we couldn't go back, and I dropped my phone in the river so we couldn't call for help."

Derek grunted monosyllabically and turned to mess with something in a box. The silence in the room was palpable and awkward. Chad clapped his hands. "Okay, so I'm going to go upstairs and be not down here and go see if we can tow your boat. Sooo, yeah. Going now."

He took off up the stairs, and the awkwardness intensified. After a moment more of silence, Derek scowled over at them and marched over to a bench that opened to reveal a storage compartment beneath the seat. He pulled out two worn out blankets and threw them at the couple.

"You're making me cold just looking at you," Derek grunted as he went back to his box.

A plucking noise drew their attention and Adrien stepped forward, curious. "Is that a ukulele?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to tune it," Derek said, holding it up so Marinette could also see the instrument. It looked old, but lovingly cared for.

Adrien tied his blanket over one shoulder, so it hung off him like a toga and held out a hand. "May I?"

Derek looked from him to his ukulele suspiciously before slowly handing it over. Adrien closed his eyes to concentrate as he plucked the strings and twisted the knobs at the top until he was satisfied with the sounds. He opened his eyes to see Marinette staring at him, mystified. This made him smirk, and he turned back to Derek. "May I play it?"

Derek leaned his large form against the wall of the ship and motioned his hand forward in a 'go ahead' gesture.

Adrien began to strum, keeping his eyes on Marinette the entire time.

 _You be my princess_

 _And I'll be your toad_

 _I'll follow behind you_

 _On rainbow road_

 _Protect you from red shells_

 _Wherever we go_

 _I promise_

He wasn't didn't have perfect pitch, but he wasn't bad either, and he sang with a sincerity despite the belied the silliness of the lyrics.

 _No one will touch us_

 _If we pick up a star_

 _And If you spin out_

 _You can ride in my car_

 _When we slide together_

 _We generate sparks_

 _In our wheels and our hearts_

 _And The finish line_

 _Is just around the bend_

 _I'll pause this game_

 _So our love will never end_

 _Let's go again_

Marinette couldn't help it, she started to laugh. Adrien grinned and took a step closer to her, s. Singing the next part without real words.

 _Oooooooh_

 _La Da Da Da Da_

 _La Da DA_

 _The blue shell is coming_

 _So I'll go ahead_

 _If you hang behind_

 _It'll hit me instead_

 _But never look back_

 _Cause I'm down but not dead_

 _I'll catch up to you_

 _Don't worry about_

 _Bowser or DK_

 _Just Eat this glowing mushroom_

 _And they'll all fade away_

 _And The finish line_

 _Is just around the bend_

 _I'll pause this game_

 _So our love will never end_

 _Let's go again_

Marinette caught onto the chorus by this point and decided to join in. Adrien raised his eyebrows, then his grin widened as he kept singing.

 _Oh And The finish line_

 _Is just around the bend_

 _I'll pause this game_

 _So our love will never end_

 _Let's go again_

Marinette stopped there since she didn't know what followed. He slowed down in his strumming, so she guessed he was finally reaching the end of the song.

 _To the mushroom cup_

 _And the flower cup_

 _And the star cup_

 _And the reverse cup_

 _Ooooooooh_

 _Wa la wa la wa la_

 _Wa la wa la wa la Waluigiiiiii_

A slow clapping started up behind them, and they jumped to see Chad standing on the stairs, grinning down at them. "Not bad."

Marinette beamed up at him. "I thought it was brilliant. I didn't know you played the ukulele."

Adrien grinned modestly and held the instrument out to Derek as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Not as well as I play the piano, but I dabbled a bit in high school."

Derek didn't smile when he took the instrument back, but he wasn't scowling so Marinette guessed he'd warmed up to them at least a bit. "Never did get your name."

Adrien grinned and stuck out his hand. "Adrien Agrest, at your service."

"Wait, the Adrien Agrest?" Chad called from the stairway.

"Yeah?" Adrien said.

"No way, my professors talk about you all the time. You're kinda a ledgend at our school."

"You go to Université Paris Dauphine?" Adrien asked.

"Yeah, in their IT department. I'm actually reaching the time to apply for my internship and was going to apply to your company," Chad said, dancing about excitedly.

"Tell you what, get me something to write on and I'll give you my contact information. If your grades reach our standards, you've got the internship."

Chad's eyes bulged. "Really?"

"Really, really," Adrien said with a grin.

Chad began to tear around the room looking for a pen, and Derek called out after him. "Careful! You'll wake Odette!"

"Who's Odette?" Marinette asked.

There was a sound like a honk that quickly degraded into a croak, thenand a long, elegant neck rose from one of the boxes that Chad had disturbed.

"Is that a swan?" Adrien asked.

Chad cursed and ran upstairs, shouting over his shoulder, "Yes, and she hates me."

Derek stepped forward, murmuring quietly to the swan. "There, there, Odette. It's okay. Just go back to sleep."

"Why do you have a swan?"

"She lost a wing and part of a leg. We think it was a propeller accident. Anyway, she can't take care of herself, so I do." The swan reached out and began to nibble at his fingers and then reached up to run her beak through his hair like she was grooming him. Derek brought the ukulele to his chest and began to play, singing something in another language. Hawaiian, maybe? The swan swayed to the music for a minute before lowering her head back into the box and going back to sleep.

"I think that was the coolest thing I have ever seen," Marinette whispered.

That finally brought a smile to Derek's face. He stepped away from the box, still playing his ukulele. "She is beautiful."

"She is, but I was more referring to watching the two of you interreact. She treats you like you're her mate."

"Yeah, that's part of why she doesn't like Chad. She sees him as a threat to me."

At that time Chad came back down the stairs holding a pizza box and a pair of bolt cutters, pointy side towards himself with the wooden handles held out in front of him. "Did she fall back asleep?" He stage-whispered. Derek nodded, his fingers never halting in their strumming. Chad let the bolt cutters fall to his side, and he breathed out a sigh of relief as hethen handed the pizza box over to Adrien and fished a permanent marker out of his pocket, and handed that over as well. "I couldn't find any paper up on deck, so I hope this is okay."

Adrien chuckled. "Yeah, this is fine." He scribbled the information down on the pizza box and handed it back.

Chad took it reverently and put it on a shelf.

"While this is fun and all, don't you think we should get them back to where they need to go?" Derek said, finally stopping with his strumming and putting the ukulele back in the box.

Chad nodded. "Right, of course."

All four went back upstairs, and Chad went into the small booth that was where the equipment to steer the ship was. held the equipment to steer the ship. Marinette glanced over at Derek. "So, what were you two doing out so late?"

"We were going back to the harbor where we normally sleep."

"Wait. Do you live here?" Marinette asked incredulously.

Derek nodded. "I'm a marine biology major, and it was easier to do my thesis from here. Besides, it beats those tiny apartments near campus."

Marinette laughed and nodded. "I guess you're right. Sorry we interrupted your night."

"Sorry I was rude to you when we first met."

Marinette grinned and held out her hand. "That's alright. T, that's what second impressions are for."

He chuckled and shook her hand. They arrived back at the tour boating company just a few minutes later. Apparently, a search party had been sent out to search for them. At first, the people wanted to sue Chad and Derek for hitting their boat, but Adrien went into the office with the people by himself and when they came back out everyone was informed that the problem had been taken care of. Marinette suspected that the solution had involved a very large paycheck, but decided that she didn't want to know.

They returned their blankets back to the brothers and left. Marinette took off her one remaining shoe wand walked barefoot despite Adrien's persistent offers to carry her. They made it back to the car in one piece uneventfully, and Adrien opened the door for her once more. and s She ducked under to get in, wincing at the thought of what the residue from the river water might do to the expensive, leather seats.

Adrien got in on the driver side and sat there for a minute before letting out a breath. "Well, _that_ was an adventure."

Marinette laughed. "You can say that again."

"Well, _that_ was an adventure."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean it literally."

"Let's get you home, princess. You've already lost one shoe, and I'd hate to see what happens if we don't get you back by midnight."

She slipped her seatbelt on and tried to hide her smile. "Bridgette turns into a pumpkin, and you walk home."

He gasped in mock horror and started up the engine. "Well we can't have that, now, can we?"

"No. What would I tease you over?"

He laughed and pulled out of the parking spot to take her home.


End file.
